Once Again Is Not The Same As Another Chance
by myheartsegg
Summary: Really, Hiro didn't see it coming. Not with it being a year after Tadashi's death. He had moved on; he had accepted circumstances as they were and had gone on to do better things. He was the hero of San Fransokyo now. But after this sudden twist in fate, Hiro's not sure if he wants to go back.
1. Prologue: Awake From The Dead

A/N: Hello, I am Myheartsegg. *Baymax wave* I am your local Big Hero 6 fanfiction writer. I seem to have gotten a suggestion for a beta, so I would like to express my thanks to **The Glass Sea** for becoming my own personal beta reader companion!

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><p>"Hiro, wake up! We're gonna be late!"<p>

The young genius stirred from unconsciousness, brows scrunching and mouth turning down at the corners into a small scowl.

"Leave me alone," the younger Hamada mumbled. "The college isn't until later, Aunt Cass. I can still sleep in a little more!"

Hiro twisted the blankets up and above his head, turning into a little caterpillar made out of synthetic cotton.

"Otouto, I said... _Wake up!_"

There was a harsh tug on his makeshift cocoon, and Hiro struggled to hold onto the pathetic remains of his haven. He pulled what was left of it above his head in attempt to block out what little light he could.

It was as the cold air bit at his skin, Hiro realized something: Aunt Cass' voice was not that... **manly**.

Slowly - eyes wide and a bit frightened - Hiro's hold on the little corner of the blanket he still had in his grasp slackened.

Peeking over his hand fisted in the comforter, the younger Hamada gaped in shock.

There, in all his uninjured glory, was Tadashi Hamada, standing unburned and.. _Undead_.


	2. You'd Think It Was A Nightmare

A/N: I am so mad with myself! I had the perfect chapter and the perfect ending too! But my internet was being a dick and I lost all my data! *cries* I am so sorry. Here, have this horrible chapter rewrite instead... *runs away*

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><p>When Hiro meant that Tadashi was undead, he didn't mean his brother was a green, drooling, flaking-skinned zombie. No, he meant that Tadashi was literally, undead; as in - <em>NOT DEAD<em>.

Even more specifically, his older brother was living, breathing, and looked exactly as Hiro remembered him before he died: his skin was a healthy tan colour and there was a sort of vitality to him that both warmed the younger Hamada and chilled him to the bone with an eerie, unsettled feeling.

Tadashi's expression was borderline irritated and halfway excited and Hiro couldn't help but stare openly, his mouth hanging loosely and his eyes roving over every feature of his brother's face and body. The person standing in front of him was undoubtedly and without mistake, his older brother: alive and in the flesh.

Hiro felt as if his heart had stopped. (If Baymax were here to see him, he would've scanned him and then proceeded to try and treat the teen. Probably with the defibrillators... Definitely the defibrillators.)

There was a stretch of silence that could have rivaled the length of the Great Wall of Texhai. The excitement began to die from his brother's eyes, and he could see the worry start to cloud those sparkling brown orbs in a way that made Hiro's stomach twist painfully.

"Hiro...?" Tadashi asked him lowly, tilting his head to better look his brother in the eyes.

"..."

The first thing that Hiro did when his genius brain managed to unfreeze from its stupor was to take a large, stuttering breath.

The second thing that Hiro did as his muscles started functioning again was _scream_.

His older brother startled so bad, he stumbled into the opposite wall facing the younger Hamada's bed, bumping into the large mecha clock that hung there. "Whoa-! Hiro! What's wrong? Why are you screaming like that?!"

Hearing the other's familiar voice only added to Hiro's near-hysteria, and his screams rose in pitch as he scrambled further back on his bed, limbs flailing. His older brother pressed a hand to his ear, the opposite shoulder coming up to block out the noise. Tadashi raised the other hand in a placating gesture, a confused and absolutely concerned expression settling on his face.

The sound of thundering steps alerted Tadashi that Hiro's screams had woken up Aunt Cass, and all of a sudden, the older Hamada wasn't sure he wanted their aunt to see this scene.

Hiro was curled up in a defensive ball, shallow intakes of air coming and going as fast as Gogo on wheels. Round, fearful brown orbs fixed him to the spot, and with the way his brother's trembling hands grasped and ungrasped at his T-shirt, Tadashi knew that Hiro was lapsing into an anxiety attack.

The teen looked like a spooked animal. The older Hamada knew his brother had been through his share of anxiety attacks before - Tadashi was no stranger to spending long nights trying to comfort his sibling after nightmares of high school bullies plagued his sleep. But never before were those anxious eyes turned on him.

Cass stumbled into the shared room of her nephews, missing the last step on the stairs. Tadashi moved hastily to help her up, gripping her tightly by her bicep.

"What- What's going on!? Tadashi, why is Hiro screaming?!" His aunt turned her frantic gaze to him, eyes slightly wild, and Tadashi could see his reflection in her wide eyes. His expression mirrored hers perfectly, and now he was even more unsure if he was qualified to answer that question on his brother's behalf.

The older Hamada looked back to his sibling and shook his head without taking his eyes off of him, answering: "I don't know. I tried waking him up, but he suddenly started screaming!"

He had to shout slightly to be heard over Hiro's intermediate wails, and Tadashi absently noticed that the closer he tried to get, the louder the screams. The young adult turned a desperate look to his aunt. With a silent nod, she slowly shuffled over to his younger sibling, shushing and tutting in a motherly manner.

"Hiro, sweetie, calm down." Hiro was smooshed up against the headboard of his small bed, looking disbelievingly between his brother and aunt as she approached. Why wasn't she freaking out? Didn't she see him? Tadashi was standing right there and-

"I need you to calm down. Breathe - _please_." Hiro sucked in a breath, letting it gust back out in an unsteady shudder.

"That's it, calm down; breathe... In, and out." Cass ran a soothing hand over her youngest nephew's back, taking in his tearing eyes and tight mouth. There was a pinched tension that hard-lined his posture and for some reason, Cass had an odd feeling she'd gone through this. "Hiro, sweetie, would it help if I warmed you up a little?"

Baymax's automated voice piped up in Hiro's head. _'Scan complete. You seem to be suffering from the rapid inhale and exhale of oxygen as well as high levels of stress. Diagnosis: Anxiety attack. I suggest you take slow, deep breaths to calm yourself. Will it will benefit you, Hiro, if I warmed you up?'_

The teen could already feel the ghosting heat of a vinyl-warmed inflatable bot cradling him gently, and hear the electrical humming that was unique to Baymax. The wave of comfort was momentarily stripped away and replaced with a sort of apprehension when movement across the room caught his attention.

Hiro glanced at his brother with a flash of terrified eyes and saw the flicker of hurt pass behind the taut lips and worried orbs.

"-Hiro?" Cass said gently.

The teen startled and blinked twice, readjusting his eyes to the proximity of his aunt. "A-Aunt Cass... What...?" Hiro wasn't quite sure how to phrase the question without sounding weird. What happened? What was Tadashi doing here?

All those questions sounded reasonable to him, but from the look that Aunt Cass directed at his brother, and through the interaction earlier, it told him enough information to know that this Aunt Cass was not freaking out about Tadashi and most probably wouldn't get what he was referring to if he decided to interrogate her.

Meaning, this wasn't his aunt and that wasn't his brother.

Hiro's tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and his throat ran dry. He wriggled uncomfortably in Cass' hold, making her drop her arms from around him. That was right. He shouldn't get his hopes up. There had be an explanation:

A hallucination? A dream? Was everything he went through just that? A dream?

A warm hand made him jump, and the imploring gazes from both his aunt and brother made his throat's constriction tighten a little. Dream people were not that warm.

"How... How long was I... asleep for?" He asked haltingly in favour of answering the real question that hung in the air.

Cass looked at him funny. "You've been asleep since last night, sweetie; you went off to bed at ten."

The look that Tadashi shot him from behind Aunt Cass' back meant that he had actually stayed up all night with probably only a few hours of any substantial rest.

"Today's your big presentation at the Institute," Cass continued, smiling widely in an attempt to lighten the mood. "I'm so proud of you two, my little college men!" She pinched Hiro's cheeks and beamed with unabashed pride at both him and his brother standing across the room.

Meanwhile, Hiro's mind swam in confusion. The Institute? What presentation? He'd been admitted into the college a year ago!

The teen's genius mind caught up with the questions as soon as they were thought up, and a stab of horror went through Hiro as a million scenarios buzzed behind his eyes. The presentation... Tadashi alive... No. That wasn't-

No no no no no. The fire- Tadashi's death- Callaghan and Krei- All of it...

"I-" Hiro started, sounding a little breathless. He paused, unsure what to say. This situation... Finally with a sort of resignation, he settled with, "Yeah, thanks Aunt Cass. I'll break a leg."

An awkward shush fell over them. Was he wrong? This scenario should have been-

"So... What's up?" Hiro choked out, pulling on a mask of shifting eyes and a gap-toothed, lopsided grin to feign normality while his brain raced to figure out what was happening.

"What's up? What's up with _you_?" Tadashi asked airily, tone unaccusing and slightly distressed. Thankfully, his brother had not moved from his spot near the first step of the stairs and farthest away from his scrunched position on the bed.

Hiro's breath caught in his throat. The teen's eyes shifted nervously from Tadashi to his aunt, and down to the wood flooring. There was a moment of silence in which Hiro couldn't speak - _couldn't_ make a sound.

Aunt Cass' eyebrows furrowed with worry before she seemingly came to an insight. The lady smiled benignly and stood from the bed, the mattress bouncing a little as she got up. The sudden movement jostled the skittish teen and he scrambled uncharacteristically to grab her sleeve.

Her eyes widened a bit at the odd move, but she gently detached his hands from the hem of her shirt and left with a soft sigh - though not before giving a reassuring pat to Hiro's shoulder, and the parting words that she was closing up shop for today and would give them a ride to the Institute, so they should hurry up and get ready, unless they wanted to start making her stress eat again.

With her exit, the air turned stiffling and heavy, and for a minute or two (was it seconds?), Hiro thought he would suffocate. Tadashi had not moved from his spot by the stairs, but the fourteen year old could feel his brother observing him - patiently waiting for him to speak up.

(The youngest Hamada belatedly realized that his elder sibling was actually blocking the only exit. _Gulp._)

Hiro cleared his throat awkwardly in the silence. "I-... I think..." The words were stuck again and something cold squeezed painfully at his chest. The teen's eyelids fluttered without blinking, focused on a point across the room.

There was something that he needed to confirm before he came to any conclusions. If this was real...

Taking a steadying breath, Hiro got up from his hunched position on the bed and slipped his feet silently to the cold floor. A shudder ran through him; it felt like butterflies were squirming restlessly around his diaphragm.

Standing on trembling legs, the younger Hamada clutched at the hem of his sleeping shirt and slowly - cautiously - looked up.

He needed to know; to see for himself if this was _his_ Tadashi; his older brother, his father figure, his best friend- his _rock_. Hiro withheld a whimper. It was painful to run his eyes so thoroughly over the person standing before him - the person who no less was supposed to be _dead_.

It caused a spark of hope and despair to clash within Hiro. On one hand, he hoped with all his heart that this person standing in front of him was Tadashi; his older brother alive and well. But on the other hand, despair hung to him like a ghost. What if this wasn't him? He'd have gotten his hopes up for nothing.

_I shouldn't hope,_ Hiro thought absently. _It's been a year and I'm done with it all. The grieving, the venting, the anger, the healing - I've put this behind me._

But it was all there; the short black hair tucked under that familiar black baseball cap; the long, thin face with high cheekbones; the shape of those eyebrows and the curve of his mouth; those stupid ears that stuck out so prominently; and those eyes - brown and warm and always silently reassuring Hiro that _I'll never give up on you, never._

The teen's gaze never left his sibling's face, even as he wobbled unsteadily in the direction of his supposedly deceased older brother. Seeing his effort, Tadashi met him half way, but hesitated when small, shaking hands pressed to his shoulders.

"Hiro-" The elder Hamada paused in surprise, his arms hovering uncertainly around his sibling when his little brother did something he wasn't expecting.

With bated breath, Hiro pressed his ear above the left side of Tadashi's chest, straining his ears for the proof that this wasn't a dream - that this was real. That hope beyond hope, his brother was _alive_.

A stupefied expression crossed Hiro's face and hot trails burned down his cheeks, blurring his vision because that was it: that was the sound - the steady _Ba-thump, Ba-thump, Ba-thump_ of his brother's heart.

Tadashi flinched at the wetness soaking into his shirt, and could only stare dazedly when his otouto laughed gleefully, a triumphant grin stretching his lips when the elder's heartbeat picked up from the sight of his crying face. Without warning, the laugh turned into a sob, and the sob into a choked splutter and Tadashi could do nothing but wrap his arms around his brother, hoping to keep him in one piece, even as Hiro broke at the seams in his grasp.

When the crying softened, Tadashi tried for an explanation. "Hiro, what-?" he whispered quietly, only to get cut off by an equally quiet voice and thin, bony arms wrapping tightly around his waist. Tadashi fell silent, and listened for all he was worth.

"I think," Hiro interrupted, voice cracking with emotion. A dry and relieved laugh escaped him. "-That I just had the worst nightmare of my life."


	3. Doubts

A/N: Yay, long chapter! I apologize in advance if this chapter is a bit boring OTL

**For clarification**: The schedule of the showcase from _Hiro's Journal_ shows that the exhibitor sign-in is at 8:00am and the exhibitor demonstrations start from 11:00am-2:00pm.

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><p>Following right after Hiro's morning mental breakdown, Tadashi noticed immediately that his brother was trailing after him like a duckling.<p>

It wasn't that he didn't like it - no, on the contrary, if it meant Hiro was kept out of trouble, Tadashi welcomed it. It was just that it worried him; to have his little brother so openly dependent on him.

Hiro was a proud kid - he'd puff up his chest and huff importantly when he could. But this meek following made the older Hamada wonder just what kind of nightmare his sibling had seen.

Whenever he brought up the subject though, the teen would frown and his eyes would drift off into the distance before he would refocus and refuse to tell Tadashi a single detail with a silent shake of his head. It was starting to unnerve the young adult.

Tadashi had caught himself more than once sending worried glances at him when he thought Hiro wasn't looking.

Another thing that caught Tadashi's attention was that Hiro seemed... _older_, and more mature. It was as if he had gone through an entire life's worth of lessons in just a single night.

Again, thought the elder of the two - unnerving.

Tadashi knew this wasn't the time to worry (the older Hamada found that hard to do, especially when it came to anything Hiro related); they were going to be late for the exhibitor sign-in at SFIT.

For now, Tadashi let the subject drop. _Hiro will tell me when he's ready_, he repeated in his head as he ran to catch the passing cable car.

... _Right?_

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><p>The whole time he was getting ready for that morning, Hiro's mind was spinning wildly with details of calculations, speculations, hypotheses, and educated guesses.<p>

A little voice in his head told him he should just accept the reality - all of his experiences were dreams - but two things in particular nagged at him: the realism and the repetition.

The dream world had slapped him awake and then left behind phantom senses that lingered on his skin, reminding him of things that weren't supposed to be there.

Not to mention that the waking world was corresponding with the unconscious one. The way that everything was going along just as he remembered it – despite the little disruption of this morning's mental breakdown - was putting Hiro on edge, making him acutely aware of every action he did and every word he said.

There was the lingering fear of making the same mistakes as the ones in his memories - particularly one mistake in question.

And that one **_big_** mistake he had made in his dreams (they were closer to nightmares now that he thought about it) was weighing heavily on his consciousness.

Hiro ran simulations in his head, pondering what choice of action he could take, even if most of them seemed irrational. So far, he had three half-formed ideas:

_Should I destroy the microbots?_ The teen asked himself. His brows came together in a frown. That would put all the hard work everyone invested into helping him to waste. He didn't want to offend them even before he became proper friends with them.

Next.

_Run away with the bots and refuse to show up to the convention?_ Hiro shook his head, hands on his hips and face tilted down as if the floor of his bedroom could give him some answers. That was too suspicious and he didn't want to make his family worry.

He'd probably get a scolding from Tadashi (he didn't miss those as much as he thought he would) and make Aunt Cass stress-eat after he returned from pulling such a stunt. Besides, where would he hide all those containers? Much less move them all by himself?

The younger Hamada huffed. Sure he could use the neural-cranial transmitter to move the microbots, but he doubted anyone would overlook a swarm of high-tech mini bots sweeping through the busy streets of San Fransokyo.

Next.

_Feign ill and try again the next year with a different invention?_ Hiro's right eyebrow lifted and he began to pace, left hand tucked under his armpit and the right cradling his chin as he thought. This was plausible - especially after the fit he had upon seeing Tadashi.

The teen hummed in thought. With what little time he had left, this could actually work.

Hiro glanced at the giant mecha-themed clock hanging on the middle wall of the Hamada's shared bedroom. The time read 7:32am. They needed to be at the college at eight.

Throughout his introspective pondering and slow, half-assed attempts at pulling on proper clothes, Tadashi was flying around the room behind him, muttering vague Japanese curses underneath his breath as he struggled to pull on a cardigan and jeans simultaneously.

"_Kusooo_, we're late... I can't believe we're late!" Tadashi groaned.

The young adult stomped down the stairs, stopping halfway to twist his upper body and call back to Hiro. To his surprise, the younger Hamada was already trailing behind him, cargo shorts on, but pajama top unchanged. His hair was still uncombed and though it was usually a fluffy bird's nest, today it seemed wilder.

Tadashi abruptly came to a halt when he saw the not-quite-there look in his brother's eyes. Bounding back up two steps the way he came, the older brother roughly scrubbed one of his hands through Hiro's hair. "Hey bonehead, when are you gonna wake up?"

The younger pushed his arm off with an indignant, "_Hey! Don't mess with my hair!__"_ and Tadashi chuckled. That was the little brother he knew.

He waited until they reached the floor of the kitchen before pulling Hiro in for a noogie, his right arm slung around the teen's slim shoulders and his left fist rubbing into his skull. "As if this isn't your usual look. You should get a hair cut already."

Hiro snarked back, "And risk looking like you? No thanks."

Despite the harsh comment, there was a smirk on his face and a twinkle back in his eyes. Tadashi beamed.

"So what's got you so preoccupied?" he started conversationally. "Worried for the presentation tonight?"

Hiro shook his head dismissively and shot him a cheeky look. "I've got that in the bag. That letter of recommendation has my name pre-printed on it."

"I'm sure it does," Tadashi laughed, elbowing Hiro's arm lightly. "But don't be so cocky about it."

The younger of the two grinned, but the wide smile quickly turned into a small frown.

Noticing it, Tadashi's own smile disappeared and he placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. He ignored the way the limb tensed and raised a little underneath it, as if wanting to shirk his hand off. "Hey, if it's not that, is it the nightmare? Is that what's bothering you?" he tried softly.

The atmosphere suddenly sobered and Hiro shook his head. The older brother barely resisted the urge to sigh. It was like this the whole morning - despite all of his questioning, Hiro had remained quiet.

Tadashi felt almost desperate for answers now. Hiro was always his number one concern; Hiro's health and well-being was always the top of his priority and not knowing was making him feel antsy.

A hollow feeling of uselessness clung to a little place in Tadashi's chest. "What was it about? Was it realistic? Losing a bot fight? Not getting into the institute?"

Tadashi was met with silence.

"Was... Was I in it?" he asked, a picture frozen in time of Hiro's frightened eyes looking back at him flashing in his vision briefly.

That earned him a twitch. Tadashi's eyebrows furrowed at the reaction. The nightmare was about him?

"What did I do? Did I hurt you? What-"

"Just drop it okay?" Hiro interrupted. The exhaustion in his voice was hidden pretty well, but it was still there. The teen's mouth pinched with guilt and he nervously rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from his brother.

"I don't-... Don't want to talk about it right now," he finished lamely. A quiet huff slipped out of him and he turned towards the stairs. It wasn't the nightmares that made Hiro's smile lose its radiance, but Tadashi didn't need to know that.

The older Hamada watched as his brother disappeared down the last flight of steps and onto the first floor of their three story building that hosted the café part of the house. Tadashi sighed before turning around and going back up the stairs to find a proper shirt for his brother and Hiro's favourite hoodie.

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><p>Hiro was scared. The way he fell so easily into the old routine with Tadashi was unsettling. He would have thought seeing his brother like this again would have changed something in him, but it was the same as ever. His older brother making fun of him while cheering him up at the same time; being his emotional support even without asking - <em>worrying<em> about him when he didn't need to.

Maybe it was because of the nightmare - after all, his brother's death was a part of it, right? Why _shouldn't_ he be used to interacting with his brother? It wasn't like that one year without him had actually happened...

The teen still couldn't shake the feeling that everything that happened was real. And that meant that Hiro couldn't tell his brother about his dreams - not yet.

Everything was all mixed up and he wasn't sure he could give a concrete answer. There was no certain reality for Hiro right now. _Everything_ – both his dreams and the right now he was in – all of it was real to him. The touches, the tastes, the sounds, the sights, the _warmth_...

With all the sensations assaulting him, Hiro couldn't make out up from down. The feeling of being lost in an intellectual way was not something the teen was used to, but being in this situation stumped him.

If everything felt real, then how could he say for sure that only one of them was-

A figurative light bulb flashed in Hiro's head. If he couldn't accept one as a dream, then all he'd have to do was make two realities. The teen almost smiled to himself. This was a theory his brain could wrap around.

Having two realities narrowed his world down to one of two options: The first reality was the "dream" where Tadashi had died and Hiro had become a superhero after defeating Callaghan.

The second reality was that the first was actually a dream and none of it had actually happened.

And unfortunately, if the first was true, why was Tadashi alive? Had he gone back in time? Why did no one remember but him? Hiro grimaced. At least it would explain the vivid memories and phantom emotions.

Even more worrying, was that if the second scenario was true, then there was no one in this "reality" that could prove it _wasn't_ a dream; nor could anyone explain why things were replaying exactly how he remembered, despite not following the script right off the bat.

Hiro pulled at his bangs in frustration – a habit he had picked up when he was overloaded with work being a superhero and a fourteen-turning-fifteen-year-old super genius attending college – and groaned.

Nothing made sense and all this guestimating was getting him nowhere. He needed proof - solid and honest proof.

Aunt Cass' voice broke him out of his thoughts, the loud, "_Boys, come for breakfast!_"reaching him from behind the café's bakery doors. There was the bang of pans and Hiro assumed his aunt had just finished a new batch of her famous donuts.

Hiro's hand touched the little side door that led to the back of the counter just as he saw a customer get up from the end of the restaurant. The man was wearing a brown sweater with a yellow shirt underneath and large-framed black glasses.

The teen froze, a serious sense of déjà-vu overwhelming him. Didn't this guy-?

"Hi, can I get a medium coffee, two cream, two sugar?" he asked, peering into the little window that showed the inside of the bakery's kitchen.

Hiro snapped out of his daze and opened the little side door to sidle up behind the cash register. "Medium coffee, two cream, two sugar. Is that all sir?" the teen asked.

The guy blinked at Hiro in shock. He mouthed something close to, '_He's so tiny_' before he cleared his throat and grunted a negative.

Hiro turned to the Hamada Caffeination Delivery System and pressed the button for the specified beverage. Hiro had helped enough in the café to know that people needed their caffeine in the morning – and quick.

The teen handed the man the freshly made coffee and accepted the trade off of money. Now it was only a matter of time...

The man almost made it back to his window seat before Mochi crossed his path. The poor guy's foot got caught under the cat's belly, and with a shout, he fell face first to the floor.

Hiro felt a bubble of laughter rise in his throat and he would have laughed out loud too, if only he didn't find the repeated event kind of scary. So he was right – things were repeating.

Meaning that Aunt Cass would rush out-

Cue his aunt pushing the kitchen door open with a loud bang and coming out from behind the counter and handing the fallen man a wad of tissue papers to wipe himself with.

And say-

"Oh my goodness! I am _so sorry_ about my cat! I'll give you another coffee – on the house."

Yep. He knew it. This also meant...

"Hiro, sweetie, can you-" Aunt Cass turned around to ask the teen still standing behind the cash register to make another coffee, only to be met face-to-face with another freshly made and still steaming cup. "-make another coffee..."

Cass' eyes flicked up to Hiro's unassuming expression. One eyebrow lifted at his strange behaviour. "That was quick," she commented, taking the cup out of his hands with a thanks and offering it up to the spluttering guy.

The younger Hamada shrugged. "Eh, I just had a feeling."

He turned on his heel and disappeared behind the bakery's doors, leaving a puzzled Cass and an irate man still sprawled out on the floor.

As soon as the kitchen doors closed behind him, Hiro pressed his back to it and shivered. So his dreams were coming true. Haha, no biggie.

The teen sagged as he let out a shaky breath.

Who was he kidding?

Walking over to the abandoned tray left on the flour-caked table, he picked up a warm donut and bit into it. Hiro munched slowly as he contemplated his situation. He wasn't aware that the more the thought, the faster he chewed.

On his third donut, Hiro paused as he bit into the cream-filled center of a Boston cream. Holding a fist up to his mouth, the teen gulped down the sweet confectionery. It looked like he had picked up Aunt Cass' bad habit of stress eating – ugh.

Well, he's already touched it, so he had to finish it. The teen cringed, but quickly pricked up when he noticed voices outside the kitchen.

_"Aunt Cass, where's Hiro? He still has his pajama shirt on."_ Hiro heard his brother call out. The teen looked down and blushed. He was still in his robo-jams, the little bots running diagonally in a pattern down his chest and arms.

Ugh, how embarrassing! He had even served that hipster guy coffee while in his pajamas! A palm made its way to his face.

_"Hiro went into the kitchen. But before that, Tadashi, have some breakfast!"_ their aunt replied.

_"Can't, we're already late as it is! And what happened to closing up shop for today?"_

_"Sorry, I couldn't help it! It's just that I saw the line up outside and I didn't have the heart to turn them away,"_ she explained with a bit of a wistful tone to her voice. _"Don't worry, I told them that I'd be closing up within..."_

There was a pause in which Hiro assumed his aunt took the time to glance at the little cat clock hung on the mantle.

_"...Ten minutes."_ She finished in a disbelieving tone. _"Holy smokes we're late!"_

Hiro rolled his eyes and glanced down to the hand holding the half-eaten Boston cream. The teen smiled mischievously. Maybe he didn't have to finish the donut after all. With a flick of his wrist, Hiro placed the pastry into a brown paper bag and rolled the top shut.

Hiro stepped out of the bakery, the door swinging shut behind him. He walked up to his older brother and lifted the arm holding the paper bag. "Here, breakfast," he deadpanned.

Tadashi pulled an expression identical to Aunt Cass's moments before, but nevertheless took the bag out of his hands. "Thanks..."

"No problem," the teen mumbled. Something heavy landed on Hiro's head. When he looked up from underneath his bangs, he saw it was his older brother's hand.

"We should get going if we don't want to be late for sign-in."

The younger Hamada looked away and rocked back on his heels. A breathless huff of laughter left him as he bounced on the balls of his toes. "I actually... I have something to do! I- um, have to make some... _adjustments_ to the microbots!"

Tadashi looked puzzled. "Didn't you make the final adjustments yesterday?"

Hiro nodded frantically, dislodging his brother's hand from its usual spot tangled in his nest of hair. "Yeah, but I just remembered that I forgot to add a feature that I meant to add once I was done!" he lied smoothly.

"Hiro, you have thousands of those things; you won't make it in time-"

"I promise I'll make it before the actual presentation, so can you sign in for me? Come to pick me up at, like, ten-thirty!"

Tadashi gave a befuddled nod and Hiro rushed back upstairs to grab his admission ticket they had bought the week before. He swept it off the desk, the placement just where he remembered putting it – next to Megabot.

Rushing down the stairs, Hiro jumped over the last two steps and back into the café. When he looked up however, the teen froze.

A pool of warmth filled his chest when he caught sight of the long forgotten scene of his aunt giving Tadashi a bone-crushing hug.

It made him happy – the thought of all three of them together again.

A weight suddenly settled on Hiro's shoulders and dropped a stone down his stomach.

That was right - if his dreams were happening all over again, this could be the last normal morning he would share with both Aunt Cass and Tadashi.

The dread that crawled up his scalp just thinking about tonight's possible events made Hiro's chest feel like it would collapse and implode.

Fire flashed in his vision and a stab of fear pulsed through him. He didn't want that – anything but that.

Hiro blinked and the yellows, oranges, and _redredred_s disappeared.

In a daze, he walked up to Tadashi – who was trapped in Aunt Cass' second hug – and wrapped his arms around his brother just as Cass let go; leaving them to attend to more customers gathering at the cash register.

Tadashi's muscles twitched under Hiro's arms, his older brother tensing slightly in shock before he mellowed. Lean arms wriggled out of his bear hug and came around to drape over the top of the younger of the two's shoulders to squeeze him just right.

Hiro would never openly admit it to anyone – much less to Tadashi himself – but it was in these two arms that Hiro felt the safest. Baymax was warm and familiar, sure. But the feel of his brother's heat and warmth and smell – all of it meant reassurance and support and unconditional love.

(Tadashi was there when his parents suddenly stopped coming home; Tadashi was there when they stood in the rain, watching as two boxes – that Hiro only recognized were the coffins of their parents when he turned four – were lowered into the ground.

He was there when nightmares plagued Hiro's sleep; was there when the bullies came out to play; he never missed a single chance to save him when his younger brother screwed up; he was even there when Hiro skipped grades and won trophies.)

No matter what, his older brother was there for the good times in Hiro's life and the bad times, too.

Tadashi was _always there_ and Hiro had taken that for granted the first time. So now the thought of having to repeat tonight...

Hiro tried his best to ingrain the feeling of this hug in case he failed. (Failure was not an option in Hiro's books, but fate was not something that was written using an HB pencil).

One of the hands on his back came up to ruffle his hair – _again_ – and Hiro pulled back just enough to look into his brother's face. The younger Hamada so desperately wanted to say something sappy, like, "Don't leave me," or "Just stay a little longer," or even "Don't let go. Don't go anywhere tonight. Ignore everyone and stay home with me."

Callaghan was at SFIT, and judging by the time frame, Abigail's accident would have already happened. Hiro didn't want his brother anywhere near the institute, much less the revenge-driven psychopath disguised as a teacher.

Instead, Hiro peeled himself out of the two arms he didn't want to leave behind and glanced at the small slip of paper with his name and the presentation time on it. The words **'Exhibitor Show Case Participant'** was written in bold letters on the top.

The black letters glared mockingly back up at him, and when the paper crumpled a bit, Hiro knew he was holding the ticket a little too tightly in his fist.

The younger Hamada took a silent breath and offered up the admission slip.

As soon as the exchange of hands was made, Tadashi was off like a rocket, rushing down the sidewalk to catch the passing cable car.

Hiro watched his brother until he turned the corner, the lingering "_I'm off!_" still ringing in his ears.

* * *

><p><strong>Omake:<strong>

Tadashi found an empty seat on the cable car and eagerly sat down after seeing there were no elderly ladies, pregnant women or children who needed it.

He was really hungry, and eating wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do when you were standing and swaying into other people, regardless if your breakfast was a donut or not.

Still, Tadashi regretted not having his moped with him to take to the institute – being on 'steady probation' and having his licence revoked for a month by the police (thanks to Hiro's little bot fighting stunt) was not the way he thought it would be lost.

Seriously, sometimes Hiro was-

_Mommy, why does that man has clothes that don't fit him?_

For some reason, the young voice whispering in a conspiratorial tone caught his attention.

The answering hiss made him look over to a mother scornfully shushing her son and whispering back in an urgent tone, "Shh, Timmy, we don't talk about things like that in public. He probably just has some issues."

Tadashi startled when he saw the mother glance surreptitiously in his direction. What had he done wrong?

Her gaze was a bit off to Tadashi's left, and though it wasn't focused on his face, he could tell it was still him that was being scrutinized. Tadashi moved his eyes to follow her line of sight and was surprised to find that it landed on his left arm-

_Draped in Hiro's clothes._

The older Hamada let out a quiet yelp and rushed to stuff the articles into his messenger bag. He had forgotten to give his little brother his change of clothes before he left! Now some mother thought he was some... some sort of-!

If he weren't in public right about now, Tadashi would have let out a wail of frustration. Instead, he settled down with a steady blush and furrowed brows.

Sometimes his brother was a real pain.

The twenty year old let out a breath. At the very least, Tadashi was thankful he had enough patience to say that he still loved Hiro no matter the hardships.

The young adult withheld another sigh and pulled out the paper bag his brother handed to him just a few minutes ago. From the smell wafting from it, he could tell it was a Boston cream – Aunt Cass' most popular donut.

A loud growl came from his stomach, and Tadashi bashfully glanced around the cart hoping no one heard. No one did.

Fumbling a bit with the packaging now, he hastily unrolled the top and reached into the bag and pulled out his donut-

Only to find it half eaten.

And from the size of the bites, Tadashi could tell it was Hiro who was munching down on it before him. His stomach groaned pitifully and he gulped down the whole thing in one go.

His stomach moaned its opinion on the meagre meal and Tadashi took back his words:

His little brother was just a pain in the butt.

* * *

><p>AN: Can anyone explain to me how I managed to get aboard the Hidashi ship? At first I was like, 'OK, brotherly love...' But honestly? I ship it so hard it physically hurts. I am trash (very large incest trash).


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